Article
The Senate Education Committee met in Austin recently to review efforts to increase the availability of higher education for Texas students and to hear testimony on strategies for recruiting and retaining economically and educationally disadvantaged students.
A report was given on the results of the "top 10 percent rule" which is a Texas law giving automatic admission to public colleges and universities to students ranked in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. A spokesperson for the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project reported on the results of survey among focus groups in highs schools in the state that revealed that about 40 to 50 percent of the students did not know their class rank. About 75 percent knew about the top 10 percent rule, but only 55 percent of Hispanics were aware of it, and some students in highly competitive, primarily white high schools questioned the fairness of the program. Although students are aware that standardized tests and grade point average (GPA) were important, they were not aware that class rank or essays are as well.
A study by the University of Texas (UT) and Texas A & M admissions directors on the outcomes of students admitted under the top 10 percent rule in 2000 concluded that students admitted under the top 10 percent rule outperformed other students and earned the same GPA as students with SAT scores 200 points higher. Additionally, of these top 10 percent students:
* 64 percent maintained a 3.0 college GPA while only 39 percent of the other students matched that GPA;
* 93 percent enrolled in college for their sophomore year compared to 88 percent of the other students;
* 20 percent came from families with incomes below $40,000 compared to 14 percent of other students;
* almost 30 percent are first generation college students, of which 45 percent are nonwhite; and
* the more disadvantaged a student's circumstances, the more likely that the student was admitted as a result of the top ten percent rule.
For information concerning the top 10 percent rule, please write my Capitol office at P. O. Box 2910, Austin, TX 78768.
State Representative Ron Clark
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768-2910
(903) 893-9426 * (512) 463-0474
(512) 475-3767 (fax)
ron.clark@house.state.tx.us
http://www.grayson.edu/district62/RonClark.html
Gallery